I'll stop mincing words. Let them stay roughly chopped instead. There were not a number of digital events that I found disturbing, bewildering, strange and demeaning--there was really only one. I got Sorted into Hufflepuff.
Badgers are easily run over by cars.
I am a pretty tolerant and accepting person. I have friends who claim to dislike J.K. Rowling's masterworks. I even have friends, if it can be believed, who have never cracked open one of her sacred texts yet who have seen every single one of Warner Bros.' cinematic heresies.
But when I found out that I am, in fact, a Hufflepuff, and that I have been deluding myself for twelve years about having qualities of wisdom, daring or even cunning, I let out one giant obscenity. Hufflepuff, after all, is the house of "the rest," taking every magical (and, yes, fictional) 11-year-old from the British Isles who does not exhibit any remarkable demonstration of a personality. It has the common room in closest proximity to the kitchens, presumably so that its gluttonous students can snack between meals. I'm also pretty sure that each of the other house mascots eats badgers.
There is no conclusion to this sad story. My intellectual capacity is probably not strong enough to develop one.
Hufflepuff isn't about not being "enough" of other houses! It can just as easily be about values. If someone is exceptionally smart, that doesn't mean he/she is always sorted into Ravenclaw (Hermione). If someone is exceptionally brave, that doesn't mean he/she is always sorted into Gryffindor (Snape). Hell, look at Pettigrew. He got sorted into Gryffindor. Now look at Tonks, Newt Scamander, Cedric, and lots of other Hufflepuffs who are more than just "the rest." They can hold their own just fine. Being sorted into Hufflepuff does NOT mean that you are not brave, not driven, not clever. More likely it means you are fair-minded and loyal, tolerant and accepting, or any combination of these things. Everyone has some of all the houses in them. Hufflepuff means that even if you might be incredibly talented, there are things you value more than simply being talented. Namely, being a good person.
ReplyDeleteAlso, honey badgers are known to not only hold their own against snakes, but also eat them. They've been known to fight with lions and, again, hold their own against them. And I don't know about eagles, but maybe eagles are smart enough to stay the hell away. Badgers may not look it, but they are incredibly fierce if you provoke them. Much like Hufflepuffs.
ReplyDeleteI was pretty excited when I found out Tonks was a Hufflepuff, since her B.A.-ity is second to none.
ReplyDeleteBut would I even be accepted by Hufflepuffs? After all, as Jillian said, I'm a house-ist. It's sort of like the paradox of being a self-diagnosed hypochondriac.
Have you read the Roald Dahl story about the guy with dandruff? In case you haven't, it goes like this: A man is crossing the Atlantic (or something) in a boat and his roommate has tons of dandruff. He's always complaining about dandruff and scratching his head and releasing tons of dandruff in public. However, one day it turns out that the guy is actually BALD! He has a wig which he shakes talcum powder into to simulate dandruff. He does this because he's really insecure about being bald and he figures that if everyone knows he has dandruff, nobody will suspect he's actually bald. THE POINT BEING, I suspect that Deborah's complaining about Hufflepuff is a front to mask something much worse. My guess is that the Sorting Hat actually refused to sort her and she was rescinded admission to Hogwarts because it sensed that she procrastinates too much to succeed as a Hogwarts student...
ReplyDeleteInteresting thought, Andrew. Veeeeery interesting.
ReplyDeleteI dunno. At least in Harry's time at Hogwarts, house-ism seemed to run pretty rampant. The system here is definitely imperfect. It's definitely not the case that every Hufflepuff is an amazing person or has incredibly high standards for everyone (Zacharias Smith, for example, could be pretty obnoxious), but certainly the ideal traits of a Hufflepuff are just as valuable as those of any other house.
We're all just people!!! A house ought to build you up but not define you.
ReplyDeleteAlso I think Andrew's theory is probably true.
Dachshunds were originally bred to hunt Badgers.
ReplyDeleteAlso, in my HS English Teacher's interpretation of the Houses, you're America (Ravenclaw = France, Slytherin = Russia, and Gryffindor = guess. Voldemort = Hitler (obvz)).
That's pretty Bachelor of the Arts (BA).
Also, "cinematic heresies" is a pretty good description. I might have to use that in the future.
Honey badger don't care http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4r7wHMg5Yjg
ReplyDelete